Fake Mating To My Ex's Powerful Enemy

"Christina?! Are you insane?!" Beatrice scrambled off Niall's lap, her blouse half-unbuttoned, her hair a tangled mess. My sister, wrapped around my fated mate in a hotel room I had tracked him to. Niall did not even bother to stand. He lounged on the bed, dried blood from where I had thrown my ring still crusted on his scalp. "Do not bother explaining, Beatrice. Your parents will side with us. We are just correcting an old mistake." "An old mistake?" My laugh was jagged. "I spent four years waiting for you. Four years planning a wedding while you kept her picture on your nightstand." Beatrice's panic melted into a smirk. "You were always so naive, little sister. He only agreed to marry you because I left." "Then keep him." I backed toward the door, wolf howling, hands trembling. "You two deserve each other." "Where do you think you are going?" Niall demanded. "To find someone who actually wants me." I met his eyes one last time. "And believe me — you are going to hate who it is." ad.readinkapp.com

Slap."You are worthless!" my father screamed through the phone. "Niall chose your sister because she knows how to please a man. You are no longer my daughter." I hung up the phone and looked around the luxurious penthouse suite. I wasn't in my apartment. I was in his. The stranger I met fast night. The one who made me forget my name, my ex, and my pain. He was standing on the balcony, looking over the city. A king surveying his kingdom. "Bad news?" he asked without turning around. "I've been disowned," I laughed bitterly, wrapping the sheet around me. "My ex-fiancé, Niall, is apparently the only thing that matters to my family." The man turned. The scar on his eyebrow made him look lethal. "Niall... the beta who has been begging for a meeting with me for six months?" I froze. "You know him?" He walked over, cupped my face, and kissed me. Possessive. Hungry. "I know he's an idiot." He pulled a velvet box from his pocket. A diamond the size of a grape sat inside. "Marry me. Right now." "Why?" I whispered. "Because I want to see the look on his face when he has to bow to you." ad.readinkapp.com

"You broke it?!" Niall's hand connected with my face, and my fated mate — the man I was supposed to marry — looked at me with murder in his eyes. Over a photo of my sister. Minutes later, I found him with Beatrice on his lap, her lips on his neck. "We're just correcting an old mistake," Niall said calmly. My own parents disowned me, tried to marry me off to a senior citizen shipping magnate. So I did the only thing left: I knocked on the door of Niall's most powerful enemy. An Alpha who'd just returned from Europe. Cold. Calculating. Dangerous. "I need you to pretend to be my mate." His smile was winter itself. "Six months. Contractual. And when Niall sees you on my arm — he'll finally understand what he lost." ad.readinkapp.com

My father, the Alpha, just told me I have TWO OPTIONS. Option one: Publicly confess I cheated on my fated mate. Take the blame for destroying the alliance between our packs. Let everyone believe I’m the homewrecker who stole my sister’s fiancé. Option two: Marry Leonard Shaw. He’s SIXTY-THREE years old. He’s buried three wives already. But he controls every major shipping port in Highrise City, and my father needs that business connection more than he needs a daughter with self-respect. I told him to go to HELL. He smiled. That cold Alpha smile that means he’s already ten steps ahead. “You like your apartment, don’t you?” He’s buying my building. Evicting me. “Your friend Ysolde’s family depends on our supply network.” He’s cutting them off. Destroying her parents’ small pack to punish ME. I stumbled out of that house shaking. No home. No pack. No future. Then I remembered. The devastatingly hot neighbor who’d helped me carry groceries last week. The one with ice-blue eyes and an Alpha presence that made my wolf go strangely QUIET. The one who’d casually mentioned over coffee that unmated Alphas are considered “volatile and dangerous” by the werewolf council. But mated Alphas with a Luna? “Grounded. Stable. Ready to lead.” I knocked on his door at midnight. He opened it shirtless, clearly just out of the shower. I said the words before I could lose my nerve: “That marriage offer you mentioned. Is it still on the table?” He leaned against the doorframe. Smiled slowly. And said: “Come in. The contract is ready.” ad.readinkapp.com